The Lion and The Serpent
by Cassy Finnigan
Summary: Harriett gets beat up constantly and has always felt different. Her aunt and uncle punish her constantly, even though most of the odd things occurring around her are not even possible. Then she learns how this is all happening. She is a witch. (Drarry: don't ship, read anyway :D) Rated M for later chapters.
1. Privet drive

**The Lion and The Serpent**

A/N: I wanted to play around with the genders of the HP characters and this is what I came up with. I ship Drarry already (how can I not?) so I felt that I needed to write at least one fanfic along these lines. Please comment down below if you want me to continue (also if I figure out how to make more chapters X[)

First Year

Chapter 1- Privet Drive

Harriett Potter had always been abnormal by the standards of her aunt and uncle. She was tall and thin, with long black hair that never fell perfectly and, most unusually, a thin lightning scar on her forehead that she tried to keep covered with her bangs. Her Uncle Vernon and cousin Dudley were very large and Her Aunt Petunia was a thin, bony woman. Her uncle had a large face, hardly any neck and a large moustache. Dudley was almost a copy of his father except he was younger and didn't have a mustache. Her aunt was thin, bony, and had an excess of neck which she used to listen to the conversations of her neighbors.

Harriett had gotten very used to the fact that Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon love and cared for their son as much as they were capable of, while Harriett was ignored, scolded or ordered around.

Strange things always seemed to happen around Harriett, which was one reason the Dursleys hated her so much. One of the strangest events happened on the day of her cousin's birthday. They were at the reptile house at the zoo; Harriett had been brought along because her usual "babysitter" had tripped over one of her many cats. Harriett had started talking to the snake Dudley had been trying to bully into moving, and then the first strange thing of that day happened. The snake lifted its head and replied. The second strange thing happened moments later when Dudley and his friend Piers Polkiss leaned against the glass. It disappeared from under their hands and Dudley fell forward into the snake's habitat. For some reason Uncle Vernon blamed Harriett for this and shoved her into her cupboard as soon as they got home, promising that she would have no dinner for a week.

"We're moving!" Shouted Uncle Vernon over the rustle of hundreds of letters addressed to Harriett flying in through every opening in the house. "We're moving far, far away, where no one can find us!"

Uncle Vernon's madness had started a few days previously when Harriett had walked into the kitchen, clutching her first letter ever. She'd been staring at the writing on the thick envelope when had suddenly been torn from her hands. She looked up and saw her uncle take it away from Dudley. "Give it back! It's mine!" Harriett yelled, desperately wanting the letter back.

Very loudly and with a nastier look than usual on his face Uncle Vernon said, "Yours? Who'd be writing to you?" He looked down at the emerald green writing on the envelope and shared a worried look with Aunt Petunia then sent Dudley and Harriett out into the hall, slamming the door behind Harriett.

Out in the hall Dudley and Harriett glared at each other for a moment before playing a game of rock, paper, scissors to see who would be pressing their ear against the door and who would be lying on the floor listening through the gap. Harriett lost and quickly lay down on the floor, hoping to hear something of the conversation going on in the kitchen.

She heard the end of the discussion. Uncle Vernon said, "We won't tell her and we won't let her read those letters," Aunt Petunia made a noise that sounded like an agreement and then there were footsteps coming towards the door. Harriett leapt up and went to lean against the cupboard door, while Dudley decided to move away from the door only when the door handle turned. The only thing that happened was Harriett moved. She went from the cupboard under the stairs to Dudley's second bedroom, to much complaint and fake tears from Dudley.

The letters kept coming and each day there seemed to be more than the last. Uncle Vernon did everything he could to stop them; boarding up the mail slot and covering every crack in the house, but the letters didn't stop. Uncle Vernon began tearing and burning them, anything to keep them away from Harriett. It was a bright Sunday afternoon when things went very wrong. There was supposed to be no post on Sundays, but the house seemed to rumble slightly before hundreds of letters came out of the chimney, quickly covering the living room floor. Harriett grabbed one and ran out of the living room, but was grabbed by her uncle before she got into the cupboard. The mail slot busted open and pelted the struggling pair with more letters. The next day they had gotten a suitcase each and said good-bye to number 4 Privet Drive.


	2. The cabin in the middle of nowhere

AN- Sorry for the long wait guys, I've been having trouble getting the chapter to be not so freakishly long...unfortunately they still kind are...but now i know how to upload more chapters:D:D

Chapter 2- The cabin in nowhere

After many hours of driving Uncle Vernon pulled over at a little run down shack near the ocean. He got out and the three left in the car watched him run into the shack. He came out a few moments later with a long thin package, a smaller, bulkier package and a piece of paper. "There's a storm coming, but we should be there before the worst of it hits." He said as he came to get his family out of the car. Harriett was very confused and she could tell that both Dudley and Aunt Petunia were equally confused. Until they saw a little row boat being pushed around in the waves. They all climbed in cautiously and set out across the seemingly unending water.

Just as Harriett saw a shaped in the distance, the storm hit. It blew their boat violently and threatened to dump them out into the freezing cold water, but Uncle Vernon continued on, pushing through the storm towards the distant blob. As they neared Harriett saw a hut, even more run down than the one they had left behind sitting on what looked like a very large rock.

They climbed out of the boat and went inside the hut, looking around. Harriett could tell that Dudley wanted to go back to the house, mostly because he kept saying he wanted to go back and he burst into tears when he found out here was no television. Aunt Petunia gave a little snort of disgust and went into the single bedroom to put her things down.

After a small dinner of a packet of crisps each and an attempt to make a fire out of the packets, it was time for bed. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia slept on the bed in the room and Dudley slept on the couch, leaving Harriett to sleep on the floor. After a few hours of trying to sleep she drew herself a cake in the dirt, adding eleven candles. She looked at Dudley's watch which told her there were still two minutes until her birthday. She watched as the time grew closer to midnight. Finally the time arrived and she muttered, "Happy birthday," and blew out the dirt candles. After a couple seconds of silence there was a loud _BOOM_. The force caused the whole shack to shake and the dust hadn't even had time to settle when another loud _BOOM_ rang out again, waking Dudley, who stupidly said "Where's the cannon?"

Uncle Vernon came into the room holding a long rifle in his hands. "Who's there?" he shouted, "I'm warning you- I'm armed!"

There was silence for a few heartbeats, then- _SMASH! _And the door came down.

In the doorway stood and enormous man. He stepped in over the door and, with a quick "sorry abou' tha'" over his shoulder, he lifted the door and put it back into place. When he turned around Harriett saw that he had a large mess of black hair and beard and small beetle black eyes.

The giant man squeezed into the shack, the top of his head would have gone through the roof had he not been stooping. He bent down and easily lifted the door up, putting it back in its spot. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little.

The giant turned to face them all and said, "Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey…"

He strode over to the sofa, towards a terrified looking Dudley, "Budge up, yeh great lump." The stranger said to him. Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother who had been hiding behind Uncle Vernon. "An' here's Harriett!"

Harriett looked up into the wild, shadowy face of the giant and saw that the beetle black eyes were crinkled into a smile. "Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," the giant continued, "Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mum's eyes."

From the corner came Uncle Vernon's voice, "I demand you leave this place at once, sir! You are breaking and entering!"

The giant reached behind the sofa and grabbed the gun, easily knotting it and throwing it across the room as he said, "Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune."

Uncle Vernon made a noise like a mouse being stepped on.

"Anyway- Harriett," the giant turned his back to the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here- I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste alright."

The giant pulled out a slightly squished box and opened the lid with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky looking chocolate cake with the words _Happy Birthday Harriett _were written in green icing.

Harriett gaped open mouthed at the cake and then up to the giant. She meant to thank him, but what came out instead was, "Who are you?"

Instead of being offended, the giant chuckled, which shocked Harriett. "True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid," He said holding out one of his huge hands, "Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." He shook Harriett's whole arm. "How 'bout that tea then? I'd not say no to summat stronger if you've got it, mind."

His eyes fell on the empty grate and the shrivelled crisp packets. He snorted and bent over the fireplace, blocking Harriett's view, but when he drew away there was a roaring fire in the grate the filled the small dark, damp shack with flickering light and warmth. The giant sat on the couch, which sagged under his weight and from his coat he pulled: a copper teapot, a packet of sausages, a poker, several chipped mugs and a bottle of amber liquid that he immediately took a swig from. Soon the shack was full of the smell and sound of the sizzling sausages. When the giant was finished he began sliding the sausages from the poker and Uncle Vernon shouted, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley," breaking to silence that had been created while the giant cooked.

"Yer son don' need fattenin' no more, Dursley, don't worry." the giant chuckled darkly. He passed the sausages to Harriett who took a bite and could imagine no better tasting thing.


	3. Witches and pigtails

Harriett couldn't take her eyes off the giant. Nobody seemed to want to explain things, so she decided to take it upon herself to get answers. "I'm sorry, but I really don't know who you are."

The giant wiped the back of his hand across his mouth, "Call me Hagrid. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of keys at Hogwarts- yeh'll know all about Hogwarts of course."

Feeling very stupid, Harriett replied, "Er- no." Seeing the shocked look on Hagrid's face she apologized.

"_Sorry,_" He turned to glare at the Dursleys, who shrank farther back into the shadows. "It's them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters, but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts! Did yeh never wonder where yer parents learned it all?"

"All what?" Harriett was feeling more stupid every minute.

"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid roared. He jumped to his feet, his anger seeming to fill the whole shack. "Do you mean to tell me," He growled at the Dursleys, "that this girl- this girl!- knows nothin' abou'- about ANYTHING?" Harriett tried explaining about the things she knew about from school, but Hagrid waved her off, "About _our_ world, I mean. _Your_ world. _My_ world. _Yer parent's _world."

"What world?"

The giant began yelling and a furious argument broke out, Uncle Vernon's courage kept wavering, but Hagrid's anger never once wavered.

Hagrid fixed Uncle Vernon with a furious glare and every syllable trembled with his rage, "You never told her? Never told her what was in the letter Dumbledore left for her? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' yeh've kept it from her all these years?"

"kept _what_ from me?" Harriett asked expectantly.

"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon, now in a panic.

"Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh." The argument continued would have continued, had Hagrid not turned around to face Harriett. She almost shrank back, but her curiosity got the better of her and she looked at him eagerly. "Harriett, you're a witch."

She looked back at the giant, her mouth opening and closing with no sound coming out. Finally she managed to choke out "A- a _witch_?"

"An' a thumpin' good one I'd wager." Suddenly Harriett was introduced to a new world, which the giant explained bits of. Her parents had been murdered and magic actually existed. She also got to read her letter, which read Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on the front in neat curly green ink.

When Harriett went to sleep a few hours later she was still thinking of all that she'd learned so far. She still couldn't believe any of it, even though it explained some of the more fantastical things that had happened in her life. The most recent was Dudley getting a light pink pig tail growing out of his bottom. She couldn't deny the existence of magic and was now feeling as if she actually had a chance to change her life now.


End file.
